All right, folks, lets talk turkey. No, make that Christmas goose. The Crowded Kitchen Players company is not producing your grandmothers version of "A Christmas Carol." And I, for one, was most relieved about that when I saw the opening night production on December 6th.This is a version for the 21st century, a palate cleanser, an antidote to wash away the residue of too much sugar in too many gooey versions of this holiday staple which Ive seen so often in my long career of watching plays.
Its full of much of the same story line (adapted by Director Ara Barlieb) and peopled by the characters whose names we all know, but underneath that familiarity lurks a more sinister sense of what it felt like to inhabit Dickens world. All was not pretty, nor full of comfort and joy, in mid-19th century Britain.
Yet the play does not lack the familiar farcical touches for which this troupe is so well known.Barlieb has cast his play with a large assortment of realistic and believable people. Any version of this play must be led by a Scrooge to remember, and the venerable actor David Oswald does the old man proud.This perfectly cast Ebenezer, grouchy and bitter though he may be, has a touch of humanity in him right from the beginning which makes the ultimate transformation we know is coming all the more believable.All of the remaining 20 members of the cast play multiple roles, including noteworthy turns by Dan Ferry as an erstwhile Bob Cratchit et al, Bill Gibson as a positively scary Jacob Marley et al, Tom Harrison as a hilarious Liberace-style Ghost of Christmas Present, et al, and the vamps Meghan LaVerne as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Rachel Tizol as the Ghost of Christmas Best Forgotten, (et al) both doing fanciful turns as ladies of the evening.You thought I forgot Tiny Tim, didnt you' No, I guarantee no one will forget this Tiny Tim, but youre going to have to see him for yourselves. Words cannot do justice in this case.And no short shrift should be given to all the remaining cast members, who show up in a swirling world of Dickensian characters almost simultaneously, costumed artfully by Nancy Mikkelson and cast, so that one sometimes wonders how on earth they managed the costume changes in time.Not all the people are pretty or charming, but instead look and act like what was probably the street scene of Dickens time, one which, in fact, put me in mind of the street world of the 21st century, if you are not walking on Park Avenue in Manhattan.The set is very simple, with painted boxes of many sizes representing the furniture, and decorated only by Nora Oswalds four hanging set pieces, which beautifully capture the inside and outside atmospheres of the shows settings.The audience is also treated to live, onstage keyboard music by the talented Clark Ferguson, a definite plus for setting the proper atmosphere.This play seems to have been choreographed as well as directed by Mr. Barlieb, in light of the almost-constant moving tableaus of townspeople and carolers who stream through the action from start to finish.I found myself strangely moved by this production, a Dickens deconstructed indeed, and I urge you to see this unusual and memorable version of "A Christmas Carol."The play runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through December 22nd.